Team Japan embarrassed by CL "Stars"
by Gen on Aug.10, 2008 @ 12:19 am, under NPB
So Team Japan recently played an exhibition game against a team of Central League players and were completely embarrassed.
Or rather, should I say, Kenshin Kawakami was embarrassed.
Kawakami was the second pitcher to come into the game yesterday (following Tsuyoshi Wada) for Team Japan and promptly served up 9 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits (2 homers) and a walk. He couldn't retire a single batter in his outing and ended up throwing 34 pitches to 9 batters.
It probably didn't help that the inning started off with an error. But giving up a double and then two homeruns back-to-back isn't quite the recipe for success either. Kawakami then proceeded to walk the next batter and gave up 4 consecutive singles before being yanked.
Masahiro Tanaka came in to try and stop the bleeding. He manage to get two quick outs but then gave up two consecutive doubles. Tanaka threw 2 innings and gave up 2 runs (both earned) on 6 hits and 3 strikeouts.
Team Japan's offense didn't make things any easier. As a team, they went 4-for-31 with 2 runs, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts. And the four hits Team Japan hit were by two players, Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2 singles) and Shuichi Murata (single and homerun).
28,227 fans were on hand to watch Team Japan get their butts spanked by Central League players.
For those interested, the CL roster.
Pitchers LHP Tetsuya Utsumi 2.31 ERA, 7-7 Yomiuri Giants RHP Kentaro Nishimura 3.05 ERA, 6-2 Yomiuri Giants LHP Tetsuya Yamaguchi 2.19 ERA, 6-2 Yomiuri Giants LHP Akifumi Takahashi 2.57 ERA, 0-0 Chunichi Dragons RHP Ryo Watanabe 1.90 ERA, 5-2 Hanshin Tigers RHP Hayato Terahara 3.36 ERA, 16 Svs Yokohama Bay Stars RHP Kan Otake 3.89 ERA, 5-10 Hiroshima Carp RHP Takehiko Oshimoto 2.94 ERA, 4-3 Yakult Swallows Position Players C Masaumi Shimizu .250, 16 R, 2 RBI Chunichi Dragons C Yoshiyuki Ishihara .259, 25 R, 37 RBI Hiroshima Carp C Masakazu Fukukawa .179, 13 R, 18 RBI Yakult Swallows INF Ryota Arai .167, 2 R Chunichi Dragons INF Takashi Toritani .291, 48 R, 49 RBI Hanshin Tigers INF Keichi Hirano .277, 32 R, 15 RBI Hanshin Tigers INF Akira Higashide .334, 49 R, 21 RBI Hiroshima Carp INF Kenta Kurihara .330, 47 R, 58 RBI Hiroshima Carp INF Kenzo Kawashima .221, 31 R, 15 RBI Yakult Swallows INF Hiroyasu Tanaka .307, 39 R, 34 RBI Yakilt Swallows OF Yoshiyuki Kamei .256, 28 R, 14 RBI Yomiuri Giants OF Ryosuke Hirata .254, 2 R, 6 RBI Chunichi Dragons OF Ikuro Katsuragi .273, 20 R, 24 RBI Hanshin Tigers OF Tatsuhiko Kenjo .242, 35 R, 24 RBI Yokohama Bay Stars OF Seiichi Uchikawa .360, 53 R, 42 RBI Yokohama Bay Stars OF Yuki Yoshimura .259, 42 R, 57 RBI Yokohama Bay Stars
Mike asked about Tanaka's appearance so I figured I'd throw up his pitch-by-pitch performance.
Pitch km/h Slider 137 Grounder to second Fastball 147 Fastball 146 Slider 137 Slider 138 Slider 133 Strikeout Slider 138 Fastball 152 Double Curve -- -- -- Fastball -- Double Fastball 145 Slider 136 Shuto 148 Fork 134 Strikeout Curve 122 Slider 133 Fastball 145 Single Slider 132 Fastball 144 Grounder to second Slider 136 Fork 137 Grounder to short Fastball 142 Curve 125 Slider 134 Slider 132 Single Slider 132 Fork 136 Single Shuto 140 Shuto 143 Fastball 148 Fork 135 Slider 134 Shuto 144 Infield hit Fastball 145 Shuto 146 Fork 137 Strikeout
August 10th, 2008 on 1:25 am
Where did they play this game at? How has Tanaka been since he had the pain in his arm?
August 10th, 2008 on 1:59 am
There was also a game against the Pacific League "Stars" the day before yesterday in which Team Japan won (6-4). Both were played at Tokyo Dome.
Tanaka hasn’t been awful. He’s made two appearances since he went down with pain in his arm. Both were unofficial appearances (once during the ASG and last night).
I’ve included a pitch-by-pitch for Tanaka from last night’s game in the main post up above.
August 10th, 2008 on 2:07 am
Thanks for the additional information.
August 10th, 2008 on 2:40 am
NP. If there’s anything else you want, let me know and I’ll post it up.
August 11th, 2008 on 2:11 pm
and here I thought they were upset by their performances in the "CL"